Lyman Great Plains Rifle

W

William Suter

Well-known member
I was in a local pawn shop today and left with this Lyman 50 cal. I missed the old days of hunting with the old "Smoke Poles" and thought it would be fun to hunt one more time with a "I wonder if this rifle will go off or not" rifle. LOL! So, its been many many years since I messed with one of these and have very little memory of what I need other than the obvious. I figure I'll shoot a round ball and a patch but what size and what powder and powder charge would be a good hunting load?
 
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What cal. They came in 50.and 54,.flint or percussion. My wife started out with a 50 percussion until I bought her a custom Ted Fellows "Kill Buck" 54 flint.
 
I've got a Hawken Renegade in the safe that looks like new, haven't shot it since the 80's. I THINK I was shooting 100grs. of black powder, I'll double check
 
They also made a Great Plains Hunter with a 1-32 twist for conical bullets the standard GP was twisted 1-60 for patched round balls
 
Some of these had a 1-48 twist and some had 1-60. Is there any way to tell? I'm not sure if I can do it with a tight patch and cleaning rod. But I haven't tried either. If I shoot round balls will it really matter that much?
 
Twist isn't a big issue with round ball, patching material/thickness will effect accuracy. I would think trying 80-100 grs charges, you get you deer vitals accuracy.
 
We have BP match's at the club and another local club have match's to. It will be fun to go to them once in a while. I was thinking about pyrodex powder over the Goex but I can get either at a shop in Tulsa. Round balls and primers are available also. I use to use pillow ticking for patch's and I can get that at Wally World. People think I'm crazy, and they're probably right, but hunting with the old style BP rifles always seemed more fun to me. My inline kinda takes the challenge out of it. Aim and shoot usually resulted in a dead deer. The old style always makes you wonder if its gonna go BOOM or not. LOL!
 
Keep your nipple clean and it will be as reliable as a modern center-fire. Even my flintlocks are reliable unless it is raining hard even with a cows knee.
 
Lyman Great Plains 50 Cal is a 1:60 twist.
Use a .490 round ball and .018 lubed pillow ticking and a charge of 80gr. of 777 FF and your good to go hunting.
For a target shooting, drop to 60gr.
They are one of the most accurate smoke poles made.
 
Thanks, I was wondering about powder. I use 777 in my T/C Omega and have plenty. I could get Goex but was shying away from it if I didn't have to use it. That stuff is nasty.
 
AWS said:
Keep your nipple clean and it will be as reliable as a modern center-fire. Even my flintlocks are reliable unless it is raining hard even with a cows knee.
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^^^ I went elk hunting during BP season in CO in 2000 and again on Sept 11, 2001. Had never hunted BP and was concerned about hunting in the snow causing misfire??? Found that if I pressed a proper size drill bit shank into a fired 32 ACP case it would fit over the nipple nicely. It fit nice and snug and lowering the hammer on the case assured it stayed in place. I'm sure it did the job, but unfortunately didn't fire a shot.
The closest I came was in 01 (had cow tag). Snowing steadily so sat in a pop up blind on a slope overlooking a drainage next to a downed tree that had been struck by lightning. I had seen elk there the year before. My folding stool kept sliding downhill so I took a piece of a splintered limb and scraped a relatively flat spot, placed the flat side of limb up and set the legs of stool on the limb. Much better! Decided to try my hand calling a cow around 9 AM; snow still falling, Browning .50 cal Hawken leaned in the corner of the blind. Almost immediately, a cow stepped out from behind a thick bush no more than 40 yards from the blind and she had my number. She stared intensely at the blind but as she began to lose interest and shift her gaze I took every advantage to reach for the Hawken, get it poked out through the 12" window, cock the hammer, remove the .32 case and even cocked the set trigger............at the same instant that the leg of my stool slipped off the small log on which it had been perched! As I was very unceremoniously dumped from my perch, all I could think about was that hair trigger and getting my finger out of the trigger guard while watching my cow burst into the undergrowth and disappear.
Spent the next 30 minutes laughing at what a picture that must have been.....shame it couldn't have been caught on camera.
 
We still have the traditional primitive season here in Pennsylvania after Christmas running through the majority of January. We are still limited to open sites (now allowed a peep site). This season is still very popular here in Pennsylvania and is a timeless tradition. Look forward to it every year.
 
I like the primitive idea, and while I would have mounted a scope if allowed, due to the fact that I couldn't see open sights well enough to be sure of a proper hit, I still was able to shoot competently w/aperture rear sight back then. Don't know what the object is of limiting sights to open; aperture rear sights were relatively common back in the 1800's.
 
I'm about half blind and don't see open irons very good but gonna give it a try. First at the range, then maybe in the woods. If the opportunity presents itself it will probably be close so maybe I'll be good to go.
 
Bill, you might paint your front sight with white or luminous paint for hunting. Contrast helps on critter's hide, especially in poor lighting.
 
Most rifles work well with 80-90gr of goex 3f. A spit soaked patch when loading has always worked fine for me tried lubed patches and didn't seem to make any difference. I tried pyrodex years ago and had ignition reliability problems in cold weather. I've used goex ever since. Never tried 777 I've heard it works alright but my pyrodex experience has made me shy away from any synthetics.
 
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